This invention relates generally to an electrical socket contact and, more particularly, to a spring socket contact capable of producing high insertion and removal forces.
A standard socket contact utilized in the connector industry comprises a tubular member which has a pair of opposed longitudinal slits therein opening at one end thereof, defining a pair of longitudinally extending spring fingers. The spring fingers function as spring beams which resiliently engage a pin contact inserted into the socket contact. Such a contact is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,564,487. U.S. Pat. No. 3,406,376 discloses a cylindrical socket contact having a single longitudinally extending slot opening at the forward end of the contact. In order to provide adequate spring action for the contact, a section of the wall of the contact is stamped inwardly and folded forwardly for resiliently engaging a pin contact inserted into the socket contact. There is also available in the connector industry a socket contact referred to as a "diaper" contact in which a split cylindrical spring sleeve is mounted on a socket contact body. When the pin contact is inserted into the socket contact, the spring sleeve expands so that a resilient spring engagement is produced between the pin and socket contacts. As will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art, when the pin contact is inserted into a split cylindrical spring sleeve, the wall of the sleeve will deflect at the side of the sleeve opposite to the slot therethrough. Similar split sleeve contacts operating on the same principle as the diaper contact are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,674,724; 2,917,723; and 3,389,371.
While the foregoing socket contacts are generally suitable, for some applications they do not provide as high a spring engagement with the mating pin contacts as may be required, such as when the contacts are subjected to high vibrations and temperature fluctuations, as encountered in aircraft, for example. Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a reliable and efficient spring socket contact capable of producing high insertion and removal forces.